Spring Indoor Plant Checklist
[This post contains affiliate links. Click here to read my full disclosure.]
Spring is underway and our houseplants are in growth mode. It’s time to give them some seasonal TLC so they grow, unfurl, and bloom at their best.
We wait all year to see the gorgeous green leaves and spectacular blooms, so let’s set them up for success. In this post I’ll cover my spring indoor plant to-do list for how I keep my plants healthy and happy during the season when it counts most.
Trim
Prune
Foliage Wipe Down
Repot
Fertilize
Reposition
My Philodendron Rojo Congo has been busy unfurling new leaves this spring.
Trim
First thing I like to do is trim off any dead plant material. Inspect your plant and see if it has dead leaves or stems. Take a sharp pair of trimmers and cleanly remove it at the base of the leaf, stem etc.
Irregular watering, water impurities (like boron)and other salt (fertilizer) build-up, and lack of humidity can cause tissue-burn on leaf margins.
You can trim the dead tissue while leaving the rest of the leaf intact. Angle your cuts with the direction of the leaf margin so it looks as natural as possible.
Trimming dead material isn’t just for looks, it’s also important for plant health and growth:
Pests/disease can attack vulnerable tissue which can then spread to healthy tissue
Removing unhealthy tissue means the plant no longer has to support that tissue so it will redirect energy into producing new growth
It was time for this leaf to go as it’s clearly dying although it looks rather pretty next to the purple leaves of Ficus robusta ‘Burgundy’.
Prune
Pruning is useful for both plant aesthetics and health. Take a step back and look at the overall shape and condition of your plant.
Does it have the form you want? For example, my fiddle leaf fig really needs another pruning. I pruned almost two years ago to promote branching, which resulted in two branches, and it just kept shooting up. It’s currently lurking in my office corner like a tall, gangly teenage boy. (I would know - I have three of ‘em)
At this point, instead of calling my fiddle leaf Mrs. Figg like the Harry Potter character, I’m thinking Lurch (The Adams Family) might be more appropriate. It badly needs to be pruned into shape.
Assess your plants and decide if they need structural shaping. This could be any awkward /random pieces sticking out you can trim to shape.
Also assess if they could use growth stimulation through tip pruning. Tip pruning is just as it sounds - prune a bit off the ends to stimulate new growth farther down the branch. The more you prune off the ends, the more growth is stimulated elsewhere.
If you’re plants are looking leggy, try tip pruning, and get them into stronger light if you can.
To learn more about the science behind pruning, read about it here.
Plant Bath Time (or Foliage Wipe Down)
I’m a big fan of hosing down the houseplants every once in a while. Spring is a good time to do it. Dust and dirt builds up on the plants over time which dulls the appearance of the foliage and can also harm plant health.
If dust builds up enough, it can block stomata and cause chlorophyll degradation, both of which will hurt the health and growth of your plant. Stomata are tiny openings or pores in plant tissue that allows for the exchange of water and carbon dioxide, and chlorophyll is what gives plants their green color and it’s job is to absorb sunlight.
I often stick a bunch of my plants in the shower together and turn on the overhead spray in what my youngest son calls “the rainforest simulator 3000”.
Sometimes I also take them outside and literally hose them down once in a while and give them a dose of sunlight. Although I’m very careful if I leave them outside - I’ll do it early in the day and set a timer so I don’t forget and come back to find them sunburned (been there, done that).
The rain forest simulator 3000 and the great outdoors isn’t possible with big plants, so you can wipe them down well with a damp cloth and follow up with a good misting to the point of foliage runoff.
Repot
Spring is also when you want to repot plants that need it. Ideally repotting should happen early on before they begin actively growing, but if you’re late, go ahead and do it carefully if it’s just foliage. If a long-anticipated bloom is about to emerge, then definitely wait it out.
Choose a pot where you anticipate you wouldn’t need to repot it for 2 plus years. That was what we aimed for in the botanical conservatory where I used to work.
In general, use a good indoor potting mix and add some perlite to it if you’re concerned about drainage. You don’t need to get super fancy with the mix for most indoor plants except orchids and other epiphytes.
Do NOT add rocks the to bottom of the pot. That’s incorrect information that’s been circulating for years although I get why people would think it promotes drainage. It seems like it would, but in fact it raises the level of saturation of water - it’s kind of like drowning your plant.
Read the soil science behind why putting rocks in the bottom of your container makes drainage worse.
Here’s a YouTube video about repotting Monstera deliciosa that applies to indoor plants in general.
My Platycerium suberbum, giant staghorn fern, completely dwarfed it’s little 4” pot so it was time to repot.
This pot is a lot bigger, but it’s such a vigorous grower I’m not worried about it being over-potted, although I let it dry out pretty well between waterings, especially since staghorn ferns are epiphytes.
Fertilize
Spring growing season is prime time for fertilizing. I’ve historically been a lazy fertilizer, but I’m more motivated now after speaking with orchid and tillandsia expert Debbie Atwood of Napa Valley Orchids. (She doesn’t have a website but you can see some of her gorgeous prize-winning orchids.)
Debbie says spritzing your air plants weekly with a half strength fertilizer during growing season does wonders for them, so that ‘s what I’m doing now.
She said to just get a basic 20-20-20 fertilizer and dilute it in half. I’ve always purchased tillandsia fertilizer because I was worried about burning my air plants, but I may DIY it for the next round.
Your non-epiphytes / foliage plants definitely will reward you with more/bigger leaf unfurlings if you help them out with some fertilizer. Follow the directions on the container carefully so you don’t accidently over do it.
Reposition
This doesn’t apply to everyone, but I definitely have to reposition some of my more sensitive plants away from windows during fall and winter. This is because the sun comes into my south-facing windows at an angle rather than overhead during winter, so it shoots through the window like so many laser beams and burns the foliage.
Come late spring and summer, I can move those plants back close to the windows. I have to do this for most of them including all aroids (I’m guesstimating aroids are about 75% of the house plant trade) hoyas, ferns, begonias. Basically all except my fiddle leaf fig, burgundy rubber plants, succulents, most air plants, and a few others.
So if you see anything that looks suspiciously like a burn mark on your foliage, meaning in the middle of the leaf, not just the edge, it’s possible it’s caused by too much sun. Sun hitting water on foliage can also cause damage.
Bottom line, move you plants to where they will be most happy during spring and summer.
I kept my Hoya pubicalyx ‘Splash’ near a south-facing window where some leaves were burned. Compare the burned foliage to the healthy foliage on the bottom.
In my office I either keep the shades down or move most of the plants away (except the rubber plant) during fall and winter and then move them back during spring and summer.
So that’s my springtime punch list for houseplants. What’s your houseplant routine come spring and summer? Let me know in the comments below.
Enjoy the post? Pin it for later!
If you have any questions or comments, please drop me a note below. Be sure to check back for my response (I always respond) since no notification is sent.
XO,
Tina